Have you ever felt leading organizational change is like the mythical story of Sisyphus, pushing a boulder uphill, only to have it roll down again? If so, you will want to tune into this show as we gain insights that help us lead organizational change, strengthen our skills for this challenge, and engage in techniques that increase success.

Phil Johnson, Dean of the Auburn University at Montgomery Library, and Jessica Hayes, the organization’s Head of Public Services, share their experiences in this area. Tune in to learn that pushing a boulder uphill really can get easier.

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If so, you’ll want to tune into this show, as we gain
insights that help us lead organizational change, strengthen our skills for
this challenge, and engage in techniques that increase success. Phil Johnson,
Dean of the Auburn University at Montgomery Library and Jessica Hayes, the
organization’s Head of Public Services, share their experiences in this area.
Tune in to learn that pushing a boulder uphill really can get easier. Enjoy the
show.

It’s great to have you here. Today we’re going to feature
the content you created for a Library Leadership and Management Association
webinar called, Pushing a Boulder Uphill
– Leading Organizational Change in an Entrenched Environment. That’s so
important. There’s so much change going on in libraries today.

It’s almost as if we can’t go an hour without some new
development occurring, I don’t say problem, but a new opportunity for growth
and challenge to overcome. That’s part of why I like what I do every day.

It’s true, and I like what you named your webinar, which is
basically pushing a boulder uphill. It’s like the mythical story of Sisyphus
with the impossible task of pushing that boulder up the hill only to have a
roll down over and over again. So tell us a little about this analogy and how
it applies to organizational change.

It just hit me one day. I was working with my wonderful
staff and wonderful team. But, we’d hit a snag due to some cultural things that
had not been changed yet. This was, oh wow, maybe 2017, so forever ago. It
feels like – man, I just feel sometimes
like you keep pushing a boulder up a hill and then you think you’ve got it
there. You think you’re there. And then, something comes up and you watch it
slide right back down the hill.

I expressed that to Phil – I was really impressed. I’m big
enough to say I’m impressed by myself. No, no I’m just kidding. But, that’s
really something that I feel like is a lot of what we have done. And, I feel
like that might be something Phil himself has experienced, maybe once or twice
– he’s laughing.

So, it started that thinking. I know it sounds discouraging
but in a way, I felt and even now more so than then, it’s not necessarily a bad
thing. It’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as you’re aware of what it is.
And, I think maybe that’s the point with Sisyphus. He might never have known
that he would never really reach there, and so he got discouraged.

He didn’t realize that the process was the journey. So, Phil
said this, and I really liked it. I’m going to take it on over to him. But,
that’s where the analogy came from. And so in our way of talking and developing
this we came up with that idea.

This analogy on its face may seem discouraging, but really
that’s not the case and that’s why we used it. The truth is that organizational
change is an ongoing process. But it does get easier as time goes by. So, small
changes quickly add up. People become more attuned to making changes that
positively affect them or impact an organization. In our case, that’s our
users. So, we talked about it, Jessica and I did. It’s always a process. And,
learn from the process, or you do end up like this Sisyphus.

In today’s environment, it’s especially important to recognize
the failure to adapt can lead to obsolescence. So thinking about that, we also
have to realize it’s important that changes can be small and still have
significant impact. When you think about it, we are in competition. And, for
us, being an academic institution that means against other institutions for a
shrinking pool of students. So, we promote change in a number of ways. And, I’m
going to let Jessica talk about some of those ways.

To piggyback on what Phil said yes, in the academic
community we are trying to recruit and get more students just in general. But
then in the academic library, particularly, we were a living organism as well,
all libraries are. But, in the academic world we have to compete with, oh, I can find that on Google. I can find
that on Wikipedia. Why do I need the library, those kinds of things. So,
why organizational change is so important is because, for academic libraries
and libraries in general to survive, we must adapt. We must change. We must
make changes in terms of technological advancements, customer service
improvement, understanding that it’s not necessarily that customer service has
in the past been bad, it’s just things are changing and the user’s expectations
are changing.

For example, I never would have made a comment about the
temperature in my college’s library to the librarians. But, that is something
that students do voice their concerns about. We can’t necessarily fix that but
we must address it somehow. I was only in college about 10, 15 years ago now. I
think about how much the user’s needs have changed, and how we need to change
to meet that.

Some of the things that we’ve done here is we’ve done more
personal library consultations, one-on-one, as opposed to the reference desk
librarians. You sit down for a one-on-one consultation so that you get service.
Because students are so, not intimidated, but they are concerned to approach a
reference desk and just talk to what they would consider, a stranger.

Also, introducing virtual reference, modernizing the layout
– still has been an amazing source of movement on that, moving us forward. No
longer having VHS, DVD’S lining the library. It’s now a soft seating area. It’s
one of our highly, most used areas in the library, by far. We see people out
there watching videos, DVD’s all the time. And basically, we just know that we
have to evolve every day to survive.

Right, we’ve become such a 24/7, on-demand, personalized,
customized society. And, that’s coming into our libraries. We’re dealing with
new technologies. Things are changing rapidly. We’re learning continuously. So
change is not going to go away anytime soon in libraries and this is our way to
help adapt ourselves, and the people we work with, to be the best libraries we
can be. Which is fantastic.

Right, you say in your webinar that the biggest threat to
change can sometimes be us. We become entrenched in our ways of thinking, what
we’ve always done. It’s always been done this way. So, how do we talk about
this? Tell us a little bit about that part of things.

People have long said the phrase, that’s the way we’ve always done, is the biggest hindrance there is
to enacting positive change. There’s a plethora of things that can be a threat
to change. We’ve talked about some of those things, such as personalities, past
experiences, failures, unreceptive administration, and burnout. There’s a
number of reasons that happens. For instance, I found out that we kept $20
worth of change at the search desk for people that make change but it was all
in dimes. So, if you came up and wanted change for a $20 bill you got $20 in
dimes. When I asked about it, it was well, that’s just what we’ve always done.
So, you know you learn from that and you go for it and make those positive
impacts.

That was definitely one of those – there’s some
personalities involved that were very much, this
is how we’ve done it. When we implemented chat in summer 2016, there were
several people who conveyed to us that, yes,
we tried this before, but the environment wasn’t right, the reception from the
administration wasn’t right. It turned into, well in their words, ‘a
failure.’ They encouraged us by giving us feedback, when we tried to implement
the change, about things that had happened in the past.

Past experiences in that situation, led some of them to be a
little bit hesitant. They’re like, yeah,
we tried this before. It didn’t work. But now, we’ve been successfully
doing it for almost three years and it’s now ingrained, this is what we do.
This is who we are. It’s as if there was never a, now this is how we used to do it, how we’ve always done it.

Part of this is the fear of change. People get comfortable
with things being a certain way, they like their predictability. We all do.
Yeah, so that’s where it’s important to understand that resistance to change
does not equate to irrationality or anything like that. People just like
predictability.

Right and you can hardly blame anybody as we look around in
our world. It feels good to have a few things that stay the same. So, what does
this look like and how does this lead to needing to manage change more
effectively?

What we were just referencing, when we say the words, ‘entrenched’
or, ‘fear of change’, as Phil said we think, Oh, you’re irrational. But, we all think about it in our personal
life, it’s not. As he said, it’s not irrational to fear change. We want that.
And so, entrenched library culture isn’t always a bad thing, sometimes for
self-preservation.

The term came around during World War I. That’s how millions
of soldiers tried to survive, was in trenches – it became entrenched warfare.
But, also like World War I. If you stay in the trenches and you don’t ever try
to go up above the ground, it becomes a stalemate and it becomes like World War
I, which was a prolonged bloody, just loss of life. Not that that is actually
what happens in libraries, but the thing to know now is that entrenchment, for
a temporary time can sometimes be the right decision. But as leaders, you have
to be always aware of when it’s time to move forward when to make those small
changes or big changes.

As far as what does it look like, entrenchment can look like
anything because it will vary from organization to organization. Some of the
main things that we’ve identified – discouragement, lack of forward motion,
people becoming complacent, or feeling as if what they do doesn’t matter.

So, those are some of the things that we have identified.
Whatever you call it, infringement, stagnation, a library is in trouble when it
is not achieving the high standards that it could be, especially when it comes
to students and users.

Go-getters and forward thinkers can have a real impact on an
entrenched culture. Truth is, most of the time those types of people are
already part of your organization and they’re just waiting for a chance to
effect change.

Finding the right motivation for those people and the
triggers to move them along might be some of the most unlikely suspects. And,
all of a sudden, you’ve motivated them or you’ve hit something that is
motivating them and you have to be aware enough to say, ok, that is something that you moved forward fast on. I’m going to
remember that. It’s being aware as a leader.

Well, first thing is to sit down and ask questions. Anybody,
even if you’re a new leader coming into a situation, or if you’ve been there
forever, if you’re noticing that your library is not achieving those high standards,
just sit down and talk, and listen, and ask questions, and reflect on what has
been told to you. Try to read between the lines, and then ask if that is
accurate. Try to understand the personalities involved.

Also, start small. I think we might get overwhelmed, I know
I do. You start small. It can be the fact that you come in and well, like what
Phil has done, is been really motivated to have customer service be an improved
aspect of the library. You come in, that can be just as simple as welcoming
people with a smile, or being gracious in yourself. So, that’s a small step.
Phil?

Thinking of it at its most basic level, we have this process
of planning and implementing change. We try to do it in a manner that minimizes
resistance but also maximizes the long-term impact for our users. Just be open
and honest about what you want to do and ask for input throughout the entire
process. Don’t let naysayers get you down. But, at the same time, you need to
actively listen to what they have to say because their opinion may prove that
you’re wrong, and you want to be in tune with that. And, if there is resistance
to your idea, accept it. However, ask them. Say, hey, if you’ve got a better alternative. Bring it. Let’s talk about it.

That’s fantastic. So, we’re listening, we’re encouraging,
trying new things, or letting people who get excited about an idea run with
them. I’m imagining your students don’t have dimes just jingling in their
pockets anymore as they’re walking out the door with all their change. So, what
happens if you’re getting some momentum but then a boulder rolls back down the
hill? What do you do to overcome when you started some great momentum but then
there’s some backsliding?

Talking about techniques and practices, I say that can be
interpreted in a number of ways. When someone says process, I tend to think of
a sequence of steps that librarians are going to follow to affect change so
that we have the intended outcome of our plans. I can lay this out in steps
necessary to implement something. So, define the change and demonstrate why
it’s good for the library. Identify the expected goals and an expected impact.
Implement a plan and the necessary support structure for it so that it can be
successful, and then complete the project and measure the final impact.
Sometimes it’s not what you’d hoped for, but you know you learn from those
mistakes and you go forward with it.

And, as far as what happens when the boulder starts rolling
back down, what inspired this entire conversation in the webinar that we did a
year and a half ago, don’t let that discourage you. Remember that you are in a
way, Sisyphus, and that’s going to happen. That’s actually, maybe that’s what
the gods were trying to teach him, that this is going to happen and you’re
going to push, and it’s going to fall back. You just have to sometimes, stand
back and look at it. You take a big breath and you then just go back at it.
It’s daunting. I’m not going to say it’s easy when a boulder falls back down
and you’re just like, where have we gone
wrong? Why has this happened? You just start back at square one, like what
Bill said, you just start back at that process. Start back by defining, ok, this is what we wanted to change. This
isn’t change. Let’s do this. Just starting back at square one sometimes.

I know personnel-wise, I’ve had some challenges and, well
not challenges, but I was a newcomer to a situation that had had lots of
different changes, my position hadn’t been filled when I got here, it had been
five or six years. So, all my direct reports didn’t know what to expect from a
former head of public services and they just had been entrenched, and it wasn’t
their fault because that was what they had to do to survive.

They had deans surveying them but they didn’t have that
immediate person. It took a while for them to come and trust me. At first, it
was, ok, sure. You’re saying this, this,
this. But then, you have to show them, especially a couple of them, I had to
show them that I actually am going to do what I say. And, I am here to work and walk beside you.

It was actually one of those people that inspired the
boulder analogy because I encountered something with them, I was like, I thought we’d already gone over this. But,
they didn’t remember, or they hadn’t recalled. You know what I did? I went and
talked to Phil. We came up with this webinar.

He encouraged me, and I just kept at it. What I mean by kept
at it was in this particular situation I kept communicating. It took a lot of
self-sacrifice. Unfortunately, not, unfortunately, but it took self-sacrifice.
I had to demonstrate through practical, tangible ways for this person to come
to trust me but I can say now from what it was even in mid-2017, the dynamic
has changed considerably. There were many people outside of the library who
mentioned the improvement in this individual and the department that they work
within.

Yeah, absolutely, so you may be dealing with institutional
history, which goes back to the way it’s always been done, kind of issue. It
can be things like fear of change, and that goes back to talking about the
predictability, earlier. Personalities can be another issue, can be strong
personalities, can be weak personalities. But, what Jessica and I have really
worked hard on is finding people’s motivators, and making sure that it’s not an
organizational boulder. Of course, then, there’s always time. Time is always
our enemy, right?

And, I think that would be the one common thing for all of
us is that time is the boulder, and it’s what will stand in the way because we
also have lives. We’re also faculty members, we have to publish, we have to do
our service on top of leading and managing people, it all takes time. So, that
can be a boulder in and of itself.

So true. So Phil, I just want to ask you as leader of the
organization did you ever have one moment where you saw something happen and
you were like, Oh my gosh, that’s it.
That was so positive, this worked.

It is a great feeling when you feel that, you know. You see
these things come together. At first, you kind of do feel like Sisyphus, that
you’re pushing that boulder uphill. But then, you see people start to get on
board. They come together and everything just comes together, and you realize
how great of an impact this is going to have on our users.

The truth is that there’s big things and there’s little
things. You delight in every positive impact that you make on your students or
your library users – whatever library you’re in. And so, yeah, it is great to
see those moments and to have them and be able to sit back for a brief moment
and enjoy it. And then, we start on the next project pushing that boulder up
the hill.

Right, right, but you celebrate those positives when they come,
that’s fantastic. As you developed this work, and this webinar, and the change
instruments in your own agency making things happen, did you come across any
favorite books or resources you’d like to share about leadership, and why?

You, and your listeners might laugh but, just in general
about leadership and even organizational change, I draw a lot of inspiration
and leadership inspiration from the series A
Song of Ice and Fire. Forbes actually has written many articles about the
key leadership lessons that can be learned from A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire). One of them is, ‘Kill the
boy and let the man be born’, when John Snow is having to make decisions that
are hard decisions. That is something that leaders, especially in
organizational change – you have to ‘kill the boy’, that’s the self-sacrifice
that sometimes is required when you’re leading an organizational cultural
change. And then, of course, that infamous line, ‘He who passes the sentence
must swing the sword’. Meaning, if you’re going to require somebody be punished
or even if you require something of somebody, then you must be able to
implement it yourself or you must carry it through.

I have to go back to Simon Sinek, Start with Why, because at its most basic, this book’s all about
providing leaders with the skills needed to inspire cooperative environments,
to develop trust, and to incorporate positive change. So, it’s a great book.
There’s a ton of other books out there, but it’s a great read and I think a lot
of people could benefit from it.

Be patient with yourself. It will take time and sometimes
the best change is the one that you make in yourself. You set the example for
what you want to change and that again, takes time and self-sacrifice, but
sometimes that is what is needed more than anything. Phil?

I’ll go back to my earlier answer about no matter how big or
small the change is it does have an impact. Even if it’s a small thing, delight
in that and be thrilled about it because you do build that momentum as Jessica was
saying. That’s the key. Sometimes, maybe it is that you start off with a lot of
small changes so that you get people accustomed to change and get them out of
that, loving their predictability mode.

And, they trust you, and the small changes help them trust
you to say, ok, this person has guided me
through the dime, the $20 dime change of 2015. So, I think I can trust them
with this change, too. So, it helps build that trust that past experiences
might have wounded them on.

Trust is important and it all makes an impact, even the
small changes. So, that’s great advice. So Phil, and Jessica, in closing, will
you share with me what being a librarian means to you each personally?

Well, every single day I get up early and I cannot wait to
go to work. So, why is that? I get to hang out with an amazing group of people
who work in this library. Every single day we get to see the impact we have on
our students and our other users. When I think we’re on the front lines with so
many different things, such as promoting access to information, helping people
expand their horizons, providing safe space, there’s just so many different
things that we get to do in our jobs. It’s a pretty amazing experience.

What being a librarian means to me is, ten years ago,
actually this summer, I realized for the first time I wanted to be a librarian.
The reason was I wanted to help people learn, and learn how to access information,
and learn how to discover new things. Just being that person that I had when I
was in college, that person – they might never come to me for library help at
all, but they stop and say, hey, I just
wanted to give you a hug because you’re awesome and I like you. I think
I’ve probably bugged Phil, daily. So, the students come in, they’re not quiet
but they’re very passionate and they’re very excited to say, Hi, Miss Jessica, or Hi, Dr. Johnson.
They’re always excited to see us. So, I think that’s something that we both
share for sure.

Thank you for those thoughts and thank you for all you’re
doing in the profession. It sounds like you’re having a lot of fun while you’re
also doing some great things and managing change. So, thanks for sharing this
content with us. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you today on Library
Leadership Podcast.

You’ve been listening to Library Leadership Podcast. I’m
your host, Adrian Herrick Juarez. Our producer is Nate Vineyard. More episodes
can be found at libraryleadershippodcast.com,
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podcasts. Thank you for listening. We’ll see you next time.

Why We Burned Our First Leadership Book, or How to Develop a Leadership Path that Holds Personal Meaning

Presenter: Adriane Herrick Jaurez

Co-Presenter : Becca Lael – Park City Library

Utah Library Association Conference

Thursday, May 16, 1:30-2:20pm

Mountain America Expo Center

How can we develop a leadership path that holds personal meaning? Inspired by interviews from the Library Leadership Podcast, a variety of strategic insights will show us how everyone can improve their leadership to personally shape their workplace, the community they serve, and the trajectory of the library profession. Attendees will learn how one library manager’s leadership path was transformed to include personal meaning, resulting in braver development.

Commencement Speaker for the Graduation of the Utah State Regional Master of Library Science ProgramFriday, January 5, 7:00pm Viridian Event Center I will be giving a commencement speech for the graduating class of Cohort 12.

Utah State History Conference
October 10th– 11th, 2017 Rio Grande Depot, 300 S. Rio Grande Street, Salt Lake City, UT Honoring the Past, Moving Into the Future: The Renovation of the Historic Park City Library that Developed a Dynamic 21st Century Library while Achieving National Historic Register Designation.

Nevada/Mountain Plains Library Association Joint ConferenceOctober 16th – 18th, 2017 Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 50 US-50, Stateline, NV89449
Lightning-round presentation on how The Park City Library recently underwent a $9.6M library renovation that included the creation of a media lab that included a sound booth, green screen, film equipment, and other high tech amenities to foster independent media production in a ‘film-centric’ mountain town that is accessible to everyone, not just movie producers.